Harry Potter and the Dark Heir

By Lady Paradox

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and affiliates do not belong to me nor do I claim credit for them or claim any financial gain from this fan fiction.

Chapter Four:

Opening his eyes groggily, Harry winced at the bright light shining at him, instinctively closing his eyes. Trying again, he slowly cracked his eyes open and shook his head a little to get rid of the blurriness. Harry was about to bring his hand up to rub his eyes when he discovered that he couldn't. Recognizing the sensation, Harry cursed at his familiarity of being tied into a chair.

Looking directly in front of him, Harry saw the seated form of Sirius who was watching him with narrowed eyes.

"Sirius!" Harry called out, beginning to grin, but his smile disappeared when he noticed the suspicious and confused look on Sirius' face. "You don't know me do you."

"I'm afraid not kid. Which reminds me, who are you?" asked Sirius with a straight face.

"I don't suppose James told you all about me." Said Harry, frustrated that this was not his godfather.

"I'm afraid not, but I'm guessing either you're a clone or an illegitimate love child." Said Sirius, chuckling to himself.

"Who has a love child?" came a voice from the doorway.

Harry and Sirius simultaneously turned towards the door while Remus Lupin stepped in.

Sleepily rubbing his eyes, he opened them to catch sight of Harry and Sirius before him.

"Oh my. Sirius, why is there a teenaged boy tied up in the living room?" he asked, practically ordering Sirius to answer.

Turning to Remus, Sirius sheepishly scratched his head.

"I thought he was James when he was outside and when I saw he wasn't, I stunned him."

"Right. Of course you did." Said Remus, rubbing his forehead.

Walking over to the pair, Remus took a seat in front of Harry and next to Sirius. Whispering into his ear, Remus asked if the boy was armed. Hearing that, Sirius mentally smacked himself on the head for committing such a juvenile mistake.

Shifting his wrists uncomfortably while the two men whispered to each other, Harry wondered if he should tell the pair his identity. Quickly going over his options, Harry concluded that the only way he could find Sirius with the public clamoring over his "secret" identity was with help.

Harry was startled when he noticed that Sirius had moved in front of him.

"Hey kid, I've got to take your wand away. Don't want you trying anything do we?" Sirius said jovially before starting to take things out of Harry pocket.

From his position, Harry couldn't see what Sirius was doing but he felt him take his possessions out of his pocket, including his wand, the Death Eater's wand, and his shrunken bag.

Then, Sirius' shoulders seemed to stiffen before he shook it off and stood up, turning to Remus. After throwing the two wands and the shrunken bag he found onto the nearby table, he raised the remaining object in his hand showing it off to Remus.

Harry felt the blood drain from his face when he caught sight of the Death Eaters mask he had taken in Sirius' hands.

"Wait! I can explain" Harry cried frantically.

"Who are you Death Eater? How did you find us!" snarled Sirius in response, whipping back around, any sense of the previous camaraderie vanishing.

Behind Sirius, Remus watched the boy with suspicion and a bit of fear as the teen's mouth opened and closed, trying to explain himself.

"I'm not a Death Eater" said the boy vehemently, protesting his innocence.

"You must admit that it's hard to believe you with hard evidence in your pocket." Said Remus.

"I took it from a Death Eater!"

Sirius scoffed, "A kid like you got close enough to a Death Eater to take his mask? Don't make me laugh."

"The guy in the papers, that Guardian Knight, that's me!" said Harry, saying the first thing that came into his mind in his panic.

"You look like you're fourteen years old and from the description, that person could be anyone." said Remus reasonably.

"How many people have green eyes?" said Harry, trying to convey his honesty.

"With a little magic, anyone can have green eyes that'll trick a teenaged girl." Said Sirius with a light tone, offset by the hard look in his eyes.

"The Auror mentioned in the paper is Tonks!" yelled Harry.

At this statement, Remus and Sirius glanced at each other, knowing that this was not a well known fact.

"Let's say we believe you…" started Remus carefully, "but what's your name and what were you doing there?"

"I… I was meeting my father." Said Harry slowly, carefully measuring the impact of his words.

"And who would this be, another Death Eater?" exclaimed Sirius, impatient at the slow pace the questioning was going.

"No. My name… I'm Harry Potter."

And with that small statement, any semblance of normalcy vanished.

Sirius jumped forward, his hands immediately clamping around Harry's throat while Remus simultaneously moved forward quickly in an attempt to pry Sirius off the boy.

Fueled with adrenaline and hate, Sirius choked the boy and shook him.

"How dare you, you filthy piece of shit," yelled Sirius, trying to push Remus away.

With his throat crushed in his godfather's hands, Harry couldn't reply to the furious man's query. Black spots started erupting in front of his eyes as his body scrambled to get oxygen. Harry felt himself become more and more light headed and just when he felt as if he were about to faint, he felt the hands around his throat let go. Greedily sucking in air, he choked and coughed violently.

Remus watched slightly relieved as he pulled Sirius away from the boy. Using his superior strength, he pushed Sirius and toward the chairs, forcing him to sit and calm down.

"Killing him isn't going to get us any answers Padfoot." He said calmly, noting the fury in his friend's eyes.

Turning back to the boy before him and grimly observing, Remus was slightly horrified to realize that although he had stopped Sirius, he wasn't exactly upset at his actions.

Squatting in front of the boy, Remus waited until the green eyes refocused on him.

"Telling lies will only kill you faster." Remus said simply when he had gotten his attention.

"I'm not lying. Ask James." said Harry in a hoarse voice, coughing a few more times.

"A Death Eater who has not done his homework at that." Snarled Sirius from his seat. "Any wizard knows we can't just waltz up to the minister's office and ask James" he said, the last words in a mocking tone.

"It's true. Your ignorance of events doesn't help your case any." stated Remus from his position in front of Harry.

"Would it help if I told you I… wasn't from around here?" Harry said, staring into Remus' eyes.

"Explain." said Remus in a commanding tone.

And so Harry did explain. His identity, his journey through the veil and into this world, his trip to the Minister's office, and ending with his quest to find his godfather that had led him there, carefully leaving out any detail about his past with Voldemort.

Listening to the stranger's story, who claimed not to be a stranger at all, Remus sat down heavily in his chair, again rubbing his forehead in confusion. The boy's story was too outrageous, even for the magical world, to be true, but too detailed in small otherwise unknown facts of events to be false. He didn't know what to believe.

Obviously he had noticed the similar appearances of this boy and James Potter as well as taken note of the boy's eyes brilliant shade of green, but a traveler across dimensions was against every magical principle Remus had ever studied. Looking at the confused Sirius, he gestured that he as well did not know what to make of the story, wordlessly giving Sirius the lead in the interrogation.

Sirius, who was also wary of the story, scoured his mind for questions that only James' son would know. He decided to start off easy.

"Who were the Marauders?"

"The Marauders were four pranksters at Hogwarts who nicknamed themselves Prongs, Padfoot, Moony, and Wormtail after their illegal animagus forms. These pranksters happen to be my father, you, Remus, and Peter Pettigrew." Harry recited.

"What is the best thing they ever created?"

"The Marauder's Map of Hogwarts which maps out the school and shows the locations of secret passages and people."

"Why did we become animagus?"

"To keep Remus company during the full moon when he became a werewolf."

"Who were you named after?" asked Remus suddenly, joining in on the questioning.

"I… I don't know."

At his answer, Sirius scoffed. "That'd be one of the first things an imposter should know." He said, instantly doubting Harry again.

"No one ever told me." said Harry quietly in response.

"If you were from another dimension, Lily or James would've told you."

"Not if they were dead."

Sirius was startled and looked at Remus who was showing the same expression of shook.

"Then I would have told you everything about them." Sirius said confidently.

"Not if you were in Azkaban for their murder." Replied the teen, looking down at the floor.

"Impossible! No way in hell would I have killed my best friends! Isn't it convenient that no one was there to tell you secrets?" barked Sirius, spitting in his rage.

"No. It wasn't convenient at all. You were framed and I was sent to live with the Dursleys." Harry spat bitterly.

At the Dursley's name, Remus' eyebrows shot up. With abundant research and prying, one could have found out about the other secrets, but information on Lily's family ended with her parent's death and when her sister got married and changed her name. No one but people close to the Potters even knew Lily had a sister.

"What's Lily's sister's name?" asked Remus after a moment of silence.

"Petunia Dursley, married to Vernon Dursley, and they have a son named Dudley Dursley who is as big as a whale. Need me to tell you their birthdays too?" said Harry darkly.

"That… won't be necessary."

"Did James believe you?" said Sirius suddenly, breaking the silence.

"Even when he knew I'd made a key to his vault he didn't believe me." Said Harry sadly.

"You made a key to the Potter Vault?" said Sirius, semi familiar with goblin magic.

"It's in that shrunken bag."

Retrieving the key from the bag after enlarging it, Remus and Sirius examined it carefully, finally concluding that it was real.

With the conclusion of the tests, Sirius' demeanor immediately went from daunting interrogator to good-humored friend.

He bounded over to Harry and untied his ropes, watching as Harry rubbed the soreness out of his hands before carefully feeling his neck.

"Sorry about that kid, you should've said something earlier." He said with an apologetic smile.

"It's alright." Smiled Harry, relieved that someone finally believed him.

"I'll get you some ointment for your bruises." said Remus after watching their conversation a little longer, a strange doubt nagging in his mind. Standing, he unconsciously straightened his robes and moved towards the door when Sirius' voice stopped him.

"Hey Moony, I think our guest is starting to get thirsty, I'll join you and make some tea to soothe his throat." Sirius said easily with a mischievous grin on his face.

"But…" sputtered Remus as Sirius stood up and steered him into the kitchen, leaving behind an amused Harry.

"Why did you drag me in here and leave that kid alone?" said Remus as soon as they made it into the kitchen.

"Well Moony, looks like the only way we can be sure about that kid is with Veritaserum."

"You want to use Veritaserum on a minor?" said a shocked Remus.

"It's the only way to know if he can be trusted." Sirius said firmly with a hard look in his eyes.

"It's your house." Said Remus resignedly as he prepared the tea and watched Sirius take the potion out and carefully drop three drops in.

Reentering the room containing the teen, Remus was silent as he watched Sirius effectively disarm the boy with a friendly attitude, urging him to drink his tea. Watching the young man who claimed to be Harry Potter drink down the tea, Remus felt uneasy.

"So where are you from again?" asked Sirius, easing into the questions to see if the effects of the potion were starting.

"I'm from another dimension." said Harry, quickly and concisely.

"What is your full name?"

"Harry James Potter, but I already told you that…" said Harry, eyeing Sirius suspiciously.

"Who're your parents?"

"James and Lily Potter. What is the point of this?"

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"NO!"

"Are you planning anything nefarious against me and Remus?"

"No." said Harry, starting to feel alarmed that the answers were all but ripped from his throat.

"Have you ever hurt anyone on purpose?" asked Sirius, leaning forward, his fervor for the interrogation rising.

"Sirius, that's enough! We already have what we need." exclaimed Remus, alarmed at the breach of privacy.

But his protest was in vain for the potion was already processing the question and making Harry answer.

"Yes."

Sirius stood up and leaned over the bound teen, blocking Harry from Remus' view and continued questioning him.

"Have you ever killed anyone?"

Hearing the question, Remus quickly stood up to drag Sirius away from the drugged teen but Harry's quiet answer stopped him in his tracks.

"Yes."

Hearing his cryptic answer, Remus was met with Sirius' triumphant face. Before he knew what was happening, Remus heard himself blurt out abruptly, "Who?"

"Cedric Diggory and Sirius Black."

"How…" came from a stunned Remus before he could help himself.

Hearing the question, Harry fought against the power of the Veritaserum, trying to keep his memories to himself.

Unable to fight the power of the potion, Harry's mouth opened on its own and the words came spilling out.

"Cedric died because I made him take the Triwizarding Cup with me. It was a portkey that took us straight to Little Hangleton where Voldemort was reborn. He was a spare and so he was killed. Sirius… it was my fault. I didn't practice Occlumency so Voldemort sent me a fake vision. I fell right into his trap. Sirius came to save me and was sent through the veil."

Reminded of his sad past and devastated by his godfather's betrayal, Harry's eyes leaked a few tears when he realized that his subconscious believed his Sirius had not survived the fall through the veil. Frustrated with his traitorous thoughts, he couldn't help the tears as they ran down his cheeks, leaving salty trails behind.

Sirius, in his zeal, didn't notice the tears flowing from Harry, but Remus did. Troubled by the boy's story and his emotional breakdown, Remus placed a hand on Sirius' shoulder, instantly silencing him. Bringing Sirius' attention to the young man who had bowed his head in misery, Remus quickly ushered Sirius out of the room and away from the boy.

Sirius started to resist, but a stern look from Remus quieted him and he left without further protest.

Now knowing without a doubt that his was James Potter's son, Remus quickly gave Harry the antidote to the veritaserum. Upon being freed from the prison in his mind, Harry immediately pulled his legs up to place his feet on the seat of the chair, his forehead resting on his knees. Remus watched helplessly as the boy wrapped his arms around his legs and shook, silently crying out his misery.

Kneeling in front of his friend's son, he acted on instinct as he patted the boy's head uncomfortably before carefully taking Harry's face in his hands, gently forcing the teen to look at him.

"Their deaths weren't your fault Harry. They were never your fault. It was Voldemort who took your loved ones. Don't take the blame for his sins." He said firmly and slowly.

"But Remus, I didn't study… if I had only…"

"Hush child, you forget that you are just that, a child. No one can blame you for that."

Remus was only slightly surprised when the boy launched himself forward, taking much needed comfort in his arms. Holding the child close, Remus spoke softly, murmuring reassurances. When Remus raised one hand to stroke the boy's hair, he stiffened but under Remus' gentle hands, he finally relaxed. After some time, Remus heard the boy's sobs slow into quiet breaths and he pulled away from the boy to see that he was sleeping. Smiling gently at his friend's son, he put an arm under the boy's knees and stood, cradling the light body.

Carrying Harry out of the room, he was met by an anxious Sirius outside the door who wisely remained silent. Moving up the stairs swiftly, Sirius followed and opened a door when the got to the top of the stairs. Once inside, Remus laid the boy down on the bed before tucking him in carefully. Giving the boy a fatherly smile, Remus removed his glasses and was sweeping some hair from the boy's forehead when his fingers caught on a roughness on Harry's forehead. Lifting the hair out of the way, Remus exchanged frowns with Sirius when they caught sight of the jagged scar marring his forehead.

Expelled from his dreams, Harry groggily opened his eyes, blinking them a few times before shooting upright, finally remembering the events that led to where he was.

A bit embarrassed by his break down and not quite sure what his situation was with the residents of the house, he carefully padded down the stairs and into the kitchen, only to be greeted with the back of Sirius Black.

Upon hearing the door open, Sirius quickly turned around, startling Harry who unconsciously took a step back.

Seeing his pseudo godson's reaction, Sirius inwardly cringed.

"Hey… good morning kiddo." He said slowly.

"Morning." Came the muttered response.

"Hey, sit down and have some breakfast. You're way too skinny." Said Sirius, gesturing at the seat across from him.

Unable to find an excuse to refuse, Harry uncomfortably sat in the seat.

At Sirius' further urging, he loaded up his plate hungrily.

"Don't worry about the food, I've been making breakfast since we moved in." Sirius said, trying to break the weird silence.

"Where…" Harry asked before he could help himself.

"Remus is a chronic late riser, to many people's surprise."

Hearing gossip about his ex-professor, Harry couldn't help the smile that came to his face.

Seeing the smile on Harry widened Sirius' grin before he remembered that they had important business to discuss.

"Harry, I… I'm sorry for yesterday." He started off hesitantly.

"It's ok Sirius, you did what you had to do." Harry said, quickly losing his appetite.

"No Harry, It's not ok, what I did, I know I shouldn't have. But now that I've done it and you've gone and proved yourself the more trustworthy person, I have to tell you why I did it."

"Sirius, you don't have to explain yourself, I understand." Harry said staring into his eggs.

"Even if I don't have to, I want to. Besides, if I don't, I think Moony is going to kill me." He said, trying to ease up the tension in the air.

When Harry said nothing, Sirius smacked himself mentally in the head for his horrible timing.

"At first, when I found that Death Eater mask in your pocket, I thought you were here to spy or kill us, but when you said your name, I put you through all of that was because I thought, with your appearance and all, that James had finally sent someone after me and Moony."

"What?" said Harry incredulously, "Why would he do that, doesn't he come visit you?"

"I'm afraid not. I guess it all started when James became the Minister. No, you wouldn't know why he's the way he is if I don't start in the beginning." Sirius said, trying to organize the facts. "Fourteen years ago, the Order found out that Voldemort was targeting James and Lily and the Longbottoms."

"And because of that they went into hiding, with the Fidelius charm right?" said Harry.

"Right. Dumbledore wanted to be the secret keeper, but James wasn't going for it, so James asked me to do it. Naturally, I agreed, but hours before we were going to perform the charm, I realized that if Voldemort came looking for them, I would be the most obvious choice for secret keeper."

"You didn't… you convinced them to use Peter Pettigrew." Said Harry with growing horror.

"I did. Now I only wish I hadn't. On Halloween, Voldemort found Peter's hidng spot, and he tortured the information out of him. Instinctively I knew that something was wrong so I went to check up on Peter, but when I got there… all that was left of him was a finger. There was a message written on the wall in his blood. Don't try to hide." continued Sirius, his eyes darkening at remembering the grisly scene.

Harry couldn't get his mind around the events of this world. Perhaps this was the catalyst that had spurred this alternate reality? Peter didn't become a Death Eater? Deep in thought, he almost didn't hear Sirius continue the story.

"Immediately, I rushed to Godric's Hallow where I knew they should be, but when I got there, all that was left was a pile of ashes. Voldemort burned the house down with a fiendfyre."

"Wait," said Harry, immediately catching the flaw in the story, "but James is alive."

"Sometimes, he wishes he wasn't." said Sirius bleakly, before continuing. "That night, James was in a meeting and wasn't in the house. When Voldemort entered late that night, Lily and baby Prongs, they never knew what was coming." said Sirius, eyes misting over when thinking of his dead godson.

Harry's mind whirled around the new developments. There was no Harry Potter in this world. Voldemort had never fallen. No wonder no one recognized him, no wonder his father had reacted so hatefully. Without his dad in the house, his mom would have never had the time to run away, was never warned of Voldemort's presence.

"Lily and Harry's death changed James. He became ruthless and intolerant towards any dark person in our Auror hunts. He never smiled and never laughed, throwing himself into his work. His newfound obsession moved him through the ranks quickly and a couple of years later he became Head of the Auror Divion. Then, when the Minister was assassinated in his home, James was the first person nominated by the public. And with that, James became the Minister of Magic."

"But isn't he too young?" asked Harry, in awe of his father's accomplishments.

"He's the youngest Minster in centuries. On his first day, his first act as Minister was to create the 'Dark Creature Registration Act'. At this point, the three of us remaining Marauders barely talked. I think James never really forgave me for asking him to switch, just as he never quite forgave himself for being away that night. The sight of the two of us just reminded him of old, happier times and he wasn't able to handle that."

Harry was silent for awhile, being all too familiar with self-loathing. "This… Dark Creature Registration Act… what is it?"

Hearing the name, Sirius nearly spat when he explained it to Harry. "The pretense of the Act is that all creatures or people labeled 'dark' by the ministry were required to register with the ministry, to make sure they were not in cohorts with Voldemort."

"Isn't that like monitoring the wand of minors? What's so bad about that?" said Harry in defense of his dad.

"Generally I would agree, but the truth behind the Act is that it allowed the ministry to monitor all of those registered all the time, without notice or warning. The Act was a fancy way of putting collars on everyone labeled 'dark' out there."

"I still don't understand. Why would that be bad?" asked Harry.

"Let's put it this way. Every single movement, apparition, purchase, conversation, private moment in the rest of these people's lives could be monitored legally at any moment, only by activating a spell placed on their very core of magic. Anything that you did could be used against you. A single stroll down Knockturn Alley would be enough for the ministry to throw you into prison for 'monitoring'."

"My dad wouldn't do that!" said Harry, quickly rising from his seat.

"He would and he did and the whole country ate up his plan, years of a terrorizing madman will do that to you. The worst part of it is, the list included everyone from vampires to… werewolves."

"No…" harry said in abject dismay as Sirius' grim eyes rested on him.

"Yes. This all included Remus, one of the Minister's own best friends."

"Surely you didn't, surely he didn't make Remus…"

"Yes he did. He practically commanded Remus to be the first one to register, as a show of good faith, as everyone knew how they were friends." growled Sirius, disgusted with the thought.

Harry felt sickened at the revelations of his father's actions.

Sirius quietly continued. "Remus almost didn't tell me. He was ready to go through with it for James' sake, even though he had all but forsaken us. That was Remus' one character flaw, he lets us get away with too much." Said Sirius, grinning darkly. "When I found out, I raced over to James' office to ask him myself and when I did, he told me that a man's duty is to his country and not his friends. I… I'm afraid I didn't take it very well. I told him that as long as he was an arse he'd never see us again and he laughed. He laughed in my face and told me that he didn't care, as long as I did my duty."

Harry's mind tried to reconcile this new information with the man he had met just the other day. Was he capable of this dictatorial madness?

"Afterwards, I left and kidnapped Remus." Sirius said sheepishly, scratching his head. "Drugged him with a sleeping potion and brought him here so that he was unconscious when the time came to register. When he woke up it was too late, he was wanted by the ministry and I had this place under Fidelius."

"You kidnapped Remus?" Harry said incredulously.

"After, he still wanted to turn himself in." said Sirius, smiling a little at his friend's naivety. "After a few hours of negotiation, I finally got him to realize that James… wasn't our friend anymore."

Harry felt floored by the way the Marauders relationship had been torn apart. "Then, if you thought I was him, why did you open the door?" he asked, truly curious.

Sirius was quiet for a moment, trying to find the correct words to describe his conflicted emotions. "We always though that sooner or later James would come to his senses. That with time, he'd revert back to the friend we remember. And when I saw you sitting there, I thought that he had, until I saw that you weren't James. I thought he had got someone who looked like himself to lure us out or something and I was so, angry, that you weren't him that I took it out on you. And for that I'm sorry." Sirius said, regretfully looking at Harry and fidgeting with his hands on the table.

Knowing that the Sirius in this world believed him was enough for Harry, and he conveyed his forgiveness by placing a shaky hand on one of Sirius' clenched fists. When Sirius looked up from their hands and into Harry's face, he was met with a beaming smile, which he responded to with his own.

"Hate to break up the love fest, but your arms are covering the eggs," a sleepy Remus said as he walked in yawning.

Chuckling at the sight of his rumpled ex-professor, Harry removed his hands from the table and continued eating his breakfast, his appetite renewed by the reconciliation with Sirius.

Pushing aside the serious talk in his mind, Harry found himself telling Sirius and Remus what he had been doing the past few days in detail over the light hearted banter of the breakfast table. He specifically asked what Remus and Sirius thought of the research he had already done.

After breakfast, the three found themselves in the vast Black family library, which was surprising clean and well lit.

Harry laughed when Sirius told him that Remus had been faithfully cleaning the room since moving in. When Sirius groaned at the thought of spending more time in the library, Remus and Harry just shook their heads and laughed.

With Remus' direction, Harry felt rejuvenated in his quest to find a way home. His Sirius would sooner or later come back to this house and when he did, Harry would be ready for him.